A man’s right testicle was lodged in his stomach after a motorcycle accident. The force of the accident was such that, after the pressure suffered, the organ was displaced from its usual place in the scrotum and entered the body through a small opening in the groin.

A CT scan shows that the testicle is lodged in the patient’s abdomen. Photo: Reproduction/ND

The case, considered medically rare, occurred in Rome, Italy, and was described late last month in the journal BMJ Case Reports. Information taken from the R7 Portal.

The testicle was “squeezed” during passage

The consequences of the accident were so great that the resulting pressure pushed the patient’s testicle through a 4 to 6 centimeter canal in the groin, causing the man severe pain, which led to the diagnosis.

This passage, known as the inguinal canal, is formed when the external genitalia leave the abdominal cavity, where they initially develop in the embryo.

Rare operation

Doctors treating the patient noted that trauma or injury that displaces the testicles from their location in the scrotum is rare.

To “fix” the damage, doctors first had to remove a pool of blood from the man’s groin and heat the oxygen-deprived organ until it returned to its normal color.

They then surgically repositioned the right testicle using a procedure called orchidopexy, a procedure also performed on children with a common birth defect in which the testicle does not descend completely early in development.

In a previous case, the patient reportedly took almost a year to be diagnosed after a motorcycle accident, as severe injuries and blood pooling in the groin area can make physical examination of the scrotum difficult.

Such delays can have serious consequences. The authors emphasized that immediate diagnosis is necessary to avoid possible effects on fertility and hormone production.

In the case of the patient in question, within six months the testicle returned to normal, with no signs of long-term damage to its vital functions such as hormone or sperm production.